


After Together

by Rei_Kingdom



Category: Lake of Voices (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, pls go play it its free and v good, spoilers for endings and bonus content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 23:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19711981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rei_Kingdom/pseuds/Rei_Kingdom
Summary: The aftermath of adjusting to a near death experience like this was hard. At least Kikka has people to talk to. And sometimes, little moments are enough.set after the Together ending.





	After Together

**Author's Note:**

> written for the GB Patch fanfic giveaway
> 
> seriously go play the game its so good and its free and i want more content on all these characters i love them so much

It was strange to think of life as lonely on the island, especially with so many lives she knew just waiting beneath the surface of Sinnlos.

It had been just over a couple months, and while her interactions with other Nixi were short and pleasant, she knew they were still wary of her. A lifetime of fear and isolation would do that she supposed.

"Kikka."

She turned from where she was walking between the edges of the forest and the shore to see the guide approaching her. She nodded slightly to show her recognition and slowed to a stop before walking a little ways onto the shore to meet him halfway.

The guide was still an enigmatic figure, even with their regular meetings to discuss the future or simply be able to speak frankly with another about their situation, she still felt she hardly knew him at all. It still felt weird to refer to him as ‘the Guide’, even in her own mind.

He was softer, sure, and maybe a little sadder too, every time they met to talk. He would never admit it - to her at least - but she could tell the burning embers of frustration and anger were dimming with every time people were determined to cross Sinnlos despite his warnings.

She hoped the apathetic image he portrayed would not become too real as to cast him completely into resignation.

It was a particularly bad night, she realised, as he did not immediately meet her eyes when they met each other, instead he took to looking past her shoulder, feigning indifference as usual, but this time seeming to choose to forget how sociable they’d been becoming with each other.

"How was last night?" she asked, before the oppressing silence of their earlier interactions had a chance to form.

The guide blinked, disguising a flinch maybe, but did not meet her gaze. "Fine."

A lie. It was always a lie and she knew it.

She closed her eyes tight an inhaled deep. The air around Sinnlos was lighter in the day, yet no less sinister. Even if she got used to the sun shining bright amidst the fog, she could not ignore the deep pit that dragged at her insides knowing the preventable deaths that happened – and would happen – in those waters.

"How many?" She whispered, trying to catch his eyes.

"It doesn’t matter." He answered quickly, expertly rehearsed not to falter, only the speed in delivery belying the Guide’s emotion.

She felt herself inhale again. She almost wished she could bring herself to compartmentalise those deaths away like he could.   
Almost.

"And Lu?" She asked, regaining her composure after a beat of silence.

"Doesn’t want to see you," He said flatly, turning around and beginning to walk away, "That is all."

Oh how badly she wanted to punch him right now. She didn’t though, sighing.   
Unfortunately, the guide did not respond well to anger.

She breathed as deeply as she could muster, lungs filling with thick air, shutting away her anger for the moment and steeling herself with clenched fists, before following after him. Lagging a little behind as she strove to catch up with him, she swore she could feel her eyebrow twitch when she noticed he was speeding up as she approached. It would have been funny to think she may have called him a friend if he weren't such a bastard… If it weren’t just sad.

She swallowed around nothing and her heart ached for Bemelle and Margret with tragic familiarity.

She had already lost too much to lose any more.

Instead of grabbing him by the shoulder and telling him to stop like she was sorely tempted to do, she picked up the pace to a light run before stopping right in front of him, forcing him to stop in his tracks if he didn’t want to touch her.

"Where is he right now?" That probably sounded more demanding than she wanted.

Her only answer was silence. He still wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Just as she was about to ask again, this time very demanding on purpose he answered.

"He’s fine."

"You’re lying." she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Would you rather I said he wasn’t?" He replied coldly.

She didn’t. But what else could she ask for? She was given a place to live and be with Lu as she wanted. But even if they were together, she could not protect him, not from the path the guide had been trying to slow humanity from barrelling straight down, leaving many more lives in suffering. She could not change who they were, and she could not change the minds of people who thought she was dead, just as much as the Nixi could not change humanity’s fear of the unknown and need to conquer either, no matter how desperately she wanted to believe there was another solution that she would try to find as long as she lived.

She had chosen to carry this burden and she would.

"I want to see him." She said forcefully, gritting her teeth to make sure no unnecessary words fell out and made the situation worse.

"And we don’t always get what we want." he said flatly, before sidestepping her to move on. The words would sting if she knew they weren’t as sincere as she knew them to be.

She caught the growl in her throat and restrained her instincts to reach out to him, even as her knees buckled and tears began to gather in her eyes. If Lu didn't want to see her, then...

"Go into the lake." The Guide’s voice interrupted. She lifted her head quizzically at the Guide’s back which had momentarily paused in his retreat. "He can’t ignore you if you’re drowning."

_Oh._

She swiped at her eyes and stood up on shaky legs before putting a hand on her chest to steady her breathing as she watched the guide go back the way he came.

 _Thank you,_ she smiled.

***

The waters of Sinnlos did not get any lighter even if she knew she was safe from them. In broad daylight, the stillness of the lake might be mistaken for peace, if one wasn’t aware what lurked beneath the surface.

She had told herself she would try to change her way of thinking about the Nixi now that she understood them better, but sometimes her thoughts would still default towards more negative connotations if she wasn’t being careful. While she did have a hard time at first using the lake a water source - drinking, washing and bathing in what was essentially someone’s home - she had since gotten at least slightly less perturbed by it, if not still finding it extremely awkward.

The Guide had told her Nixi were born from the waters magic given form in passing, after her repeated questions were given no response. She thought he was just getting annoyed at all the wrong and ridiculous theories she would poke at him. And though she was fully aware it could still be a lie to get her to stop aggravating him, she did like to genuinely think they had gotten close enough within these months that he would share something like that with her - even if it was after some prodding.

She couldn’t see any of the silvery moonlight eyes she associated with the lake right now, which was understandable, though she did oddly miss seeing their glistening through the water. She chuckled as she remembered the sparkling eyes that once looked so ominous now congregated around the shore near her hut most nights, managing to look curious instead of scary, and the clicks and gurgles which she now knew to be their native tongue sounded more like chirps and snippets of voices to remind her that she wasn’t alone out here.

Although Nixi lumbering their way onto shore unexpectedly in prowler form frightened her every time, Lu insisted that they meant no harm.

_Lu..._

As she waded a little further out from the shore, so as her feet could reach the ground and the water lapped at her shoulders, she ran her hands across the surface of the water and watched with a heavy feeling in her gut - that far surpassed the weight of the water on her limbs - as the ripples she made quickly vanished as if there were no disturbance at all, not a trace of her presence, just like when....

"And what are you doing?"

Lu's voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she spun to face him as he emerged from deeper inside the lake.

She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, "Lu..."

"I know that life really sucks here, but if you get to lecture me about not dying, then I get to too," He spoke, giving one of his familiar self-depreciating smirks, "Although I can’t really say I blame you."

She could feel her face wrestling to both smile fondly at him, and frown at his dark humour. Instead she settled on reaching out and hugging him when he drifted near.

"Miss me?" He whispered.

She pulled him closer and buried her head into his neck, arms wrapped around his back squeezing tightly. "How could I not?" She muffled against his skin.

Pulling away and cupping his face to inspect him, she managed a firmer smile at seeing he wasn’t hurt, before feeling it crumble slightly as she saw the dullness in his eyes.

"Lu," She began.

"Let’s get back to shore," He said looking away from her, "Can’t be too careful with all these nosey people around. Hah…" He laughed to himself, already pulling her towards shore.

She had talked to him once before about conversing with her in his Nix form, or at least in the water, citing that maintaining his human appearance took effort that he didn’t need to spend, and at least being in the water would help relax him after the long nights of... Helping the guide. The truth was she had wanted to see him in his true form. Maybe it was curiosity, wanting to know how he looked and sounded as a nix, if she could learn to speak his language so she could understand the other. Maybe it was the idea of seeing this part of him would bring them closer, or show that she wanted to become more intimate and open with each other.

In the end after all her pestering he had snapped and she could never forget the expression on his face.

_("This is my true form! This is who Lu is!")_

They never spoke about it again and she couldn’t make herself bring it up, no matter how much she wanted to unpack all that insecurity and tell him she didn’t care, and it didn’t matter to her. She had wanted to apologise but couldn’t form the words. It was heartbreaking.

And she was almost sure he was making the same crushing expression right now.

She let him walk them both back to shore so he could be where he was more comfortable before she decided to start talking. She stilled as he dropped her wrist and plopped down onto the sand, slouching with his knees bent to hide his face in his hands.

She swallowed around the dry lump in her throat and sat gingerly by his side. He didn’t look up.

"I’m glad I met you.” She directed at him, speaking so softly the words couldn’t be carried by the breeze.

She felt his body tense from where their shoulders were touching and lightly leaned towards him, focusing her gaze back onto the lake, not expecting a reply.

They sat in silence for a while, neither of them moving as the sun rose higher in the sky. She closed her eyes and leaned against him a little more.

_This is enough._

She had almost begun to drift off when Lu shifted to hold her hand, twining their fingers together, even though he made no move to look at her. She squeezed in return, smoothing her thumb across the back of his hand in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

"Kikka..."

She managed not to startle at his hoarse whisper. Turning towards him as she felt the hand in hers begin to tremble and the body next to her begin to shake. She shifted, still damp clothes and dried sand rubbing uncomfortably against her skin, facing him and placing her other hand on his head and carding her fingers through his hair.

"I’m here."

She listened as he stumbled through his words, mumbling what he had seen, hiccuping what he had done, and _sorry sorry sorry_ for what he could not.

"I know."

It was a bad night. One traveller was impulsive and stubborn, thought he knew better than the guide. He endangered everyone by not listening to the Guide. No one survived. He couldn’t let them. They had pleaded for life.

Kikka and Lu cried.

Kneeling with her head pressed against his and her eyes closed, she listened when he spoke and waited when he didn’t, giving him as much time as he needed. He had never looked so young until now and her heart twisted at the sight.

"I don’t want to die," His voice broke, sore and cracking from stress, "But I don’t want them to die either."

She squeezed her eyes closed tighter, as if it would make the ache go away, even as the sentiment reverberating throughout her entire body.

"I know."

Eventually they lapsed into silence, the heavy atmosphere lifting slightly into a lighter, companionable silence, not exactly peaceful, but less of the crushing despair that was felt between the gaps of his retelling. He moved first, untangling their sweaty hands and pulling back to pat dry his hand before scrubbing away his tears. She followed suit with a sharp inhale as her muscles protested from being in an uncomfortable position for hours. Patting away the sand from her mostly dry clothes she stood as he did the same. Finished, she turned to find him staring at her with faraway eyes.

Smiling slightly she stepped toward him, "Hello."

He blinked back at her, "Hello yourself," a small smile teasing at his lips.

She took his hand and began leading him back towards her hut, allowing herself to let go of the grief they had shared for the moment.

"I found a shell the other day I wanted to show you."

 _It would be okay,_ she thought, _to just have this_.

She squeezed his hand, looking back at his adorably confused face, still red from crying as he stumbled after her. She chuckled at his bewildered expression that switched to a full flustered blush as she kissed the back of his hand while looking him right in the eyes.

He sputtered out a response she didn’t catch before mumbling about how his siblings would never let him live this down if they saw him, and she let a laugh bubble out that filled the vicinity, drowning everything out – even if it was just for a moment.

After all, she wasn’t lying when she said she did it for Lu.

And now they were here, together.

...and for whatever else came next.


End file.
